Epic Gamer Moment

"What is up guys, welcome to the stream. It is yet another lovely day of gaming ahead of us so let's jump right into the first match."

Kenny was finally the person he had always wanted to be, a Professional Gamer-slash-YouTuber-slash-Streamer. He had not dreamt of being this popular ever, at least not when he would play on a PC which had 4 GB RAM, a 2.8 GHz processor which had like 600 Gb of hard disk space and no graphics card.

He was a normal Indian kid. Thirteen when he got into gaming, Kenny had had almost no ambition. He would play only one game on his Windows 7 PC, GTA Vice City. He was so much into games that for getting a new computer setup so that he could run a game famous at the time, he lied that he had wanted it to practice Java programming to keep up with the school portion. He had only wanted to run one game and aiming at that he got a slightly better PC. That game was Fortnite, it had been killing it since its release. This was the game that helped him take off but that is for later.

One day at his school during his 9th Grade. His exams were coming nearer so there was a counselor's session in his class. The school counselor, Ms. Pink, asked each one of us what we aspired to become. When it was Kenny's turn he replied what he really thought would work.

"A professional gamer," He said proudly. The entire class chuckled nervously. He could hear people whispering "Yeah right the dork becoming a gamer, ain't happening"; "Is he serious?"; "What's a professional gamer?"; "What's a ‘Dork'?"; "Why is everybody whispering so much?"

"Silence", Ms. Pink bellowed. She was scary when she wanted to be and for some random reason she had a bold voice that would easily crack.

"Kenny are you serious when you say you want to be that," she asked saying ‘that' with a tinge of disgust.

"Yes," said Kenny, his pride wavering a little.

"I want to see you in my office during the lunch break"

"O-okay"

With that, she left. In the break, she was scribbling something down really fast in her tiny little notebook which she carried around everywhere.

"Sit" she ordered.

No sooner did Kenny sit than she started rambling on about her son, niece, nephew, all the successful people from her family, the struggle they underwent and how they had not many resources. Kenny respected all that and even her for that matter but he wasn't here to hear about her entire family. Then finally when she was about to end, Kenny started getting up but then she said something that he didn't want to hear.

"It has no scope here" she sighed.

"What?"

"Gaming. There is no future for gaming in India. It isn't supposed to be a profession for developing countries" she said with concern. Without waiting for a reply she shooed him off. Kenny thought about this all day. What did she mean when she said that it didn't have a future in India? He has seen so many people in the gaming industry from India. At around 11:30 in the night, he decided it wasn't worth so much attention so he slept and the next day he woke up with as much enthusiasm for gaming as ever.

After almost a month, his exams were finally finished and that was the day he officially started streaming. He streamed that day for a total of four hours and then got up and relaxed for a while. He had like ten people watch that in total and those guys were probably drawn to it by the title saying ‘First ever stream' but that didn't matter he'd been discovered in the vast platform. He was really glad, he had donations that summed up to a total of sixty USD that meant he had around four thousand two hundred Indian rupees. That was a HUGE step.

Miss Pink wasn't aware of that yet, and Kenny was too happy to bother telling her. From his first earning he bought himself a new Microphone and a new Gaming Mouse. His mom was really proud. His dad, not as much. He still thought that this wasn't a real profession and he said that Kenny had to focus more on studies now that his tenth grade had started. In fact, he did, every day before starting his stream he would study for an hour. After he was done with his stream, he would go to the park for a walk, return home, study, and then sleep.

This had now become a routine. But you know what they say about routines, they always get boring. He eventually (like a month later) started posting some clips from his stream on YouTube, even there he exploded. His gameplay wasn't much, he was alright, but his commentary, his grasp on English as a language and his humor all these were the ingredients to his success.

A few weeks later on the 4th of February, a game called Apex Legends released for FREE! Several famous streamers and YouTubers (Kenny being one of them) were sponsored to play the game and advertise it. The first time he played it, Kenny couldn't help but fall in love with it. He had taken some time to adjust the graphics according to his PC which is when he had to adjust. The game's graphics were spectacular but his PC, not so much. You see the PC he had wasn't really built for heavy games like Apex but he still tried it out.

"Alright, everything on low, color-blind mode on and boom! It's Showtime." And with this he began his stream, unfortunately, it didn't go as planned.

His game started lagging a lot and his stream would constantly keep sticking and would hang on certain frames. Finally, he decided he won't stream the game and that instead he would record it or go for its tournaments, and so he did.

As mentioned, he was color-blind to the colors green and red. This is how he had discovered that:

Rewind to his sixth grade, school medical check-up, he approaches the doctor and here's the conversation in short:

"You see these colorful circles?"

"Uh-huh."

"Can you see the numbers hidden in each one of them?"

"Nope."

"Say what."

"Nope."

"Honey I need you to know this, you are color-blind and now you can neither join the army, the air force nor the navy."

"Bu-"

"No buts sugar."

Kenny felt his feet sinking in the solid marble floor. He couldn't think straight. His head went haywire with different thoughts. What about his dream. What would he do when he grows up if he wouldn't join the army?

That's why he was so overdramatic when Miss Pink told him his dream wasn't a possible one. He didn't want to hear it again. And then poof that memory faded. He was back in his room reading his invitation for a tournament in California two months later. The prize: 10,000 USD to the winner of the maximum matches and a new Computer set up to the leading nine including a new Mouse and keyboard along with the monitor and CPU, this was Kenny's chance to shine. He sat there reading it in his dimly lit room on his computer monitor, sipping his RedBull, first getting too excited then doubting it and after confirming thinking about it. He was in for a challenge now.

A month passed he had trained and trained and worked hard all month, 4 hours a day partially because he was psyched about the competition and partially because he liked playing games more than studies and at this crucial moment his dad walked into the room and switched off the PC, took out the power cord, coiled it up and tucked it away hiding it from Kenny and throughout this Kenny didn't raise his voice once except for when his PC suddenly died.

"What the heck dude. It as a top-five situation"

His Father said nothing just stared at him and Kenny realized his mistake.

"Sorry Dad I didn't know it was you"

Silence.

Then his Father turned and plucked out the power supply cord and tucked it away. Without a word he left and sometime later so did Kenny. He had never even thought of back answering his parents let alone shouting at them. He was indeed one of those kids who had always put his parents above any god. It took Kenny not more than a day to find out where his father had kept that chord but he didn't dare take it out. He tried convincing his father to give him the power chord, but no luck.

Then next week his Dad walks in and hands him the chord and says:

 "Son as long as your passion doesn't become your obsession I am fine with you and your Gaming and I promise you as soon as you finish your Tenth grade I'll get you all you need to fulfill the requirements. I still think this isn't the right path for you but your mother seems to believe in you and she's never wrong that woman."

With that, he left, before Kenny could even reply. He was awestruck. His father was a man of few words but when he opened his mouth it was as if wisdom was the only thing pouring out of it and with a little thought about what to do next and making himself a nice cup of coffee he got to work.

Kenny howled in pain as he got up the next morning. He had slept on his keyboard and now got up with an excessive pain as he got up in his little finger. Seems he used it excessively. To non-gamers here's a piece of information: In most shooter games the control/mechanism of crouching is controlled by the ‘Ctrl' key which is controlled by the little finger, one of the weakest fingers yet really important.

"You have a sprain in your little finger" The doctored muttered.

"Uh-huh," Kenny said. As if he didn't already know.

"Here's a pain killer and remember RICE: Rest, Ice, Co-"

"Compression, Elevation. I know, I know. How long before I can use this finger again?"

"I'd say a couple of months maybe."

"Months?! I haven't got even a week. Two days later I fly to the States, my tournament is next week. Oh no no no no no. This can't be happening!"

"It sure is pal cause your pain seems real."

Kenny left the hospital feeling shadier than ever. What was he supposed to do now? He couldn't just not participate that wasn't an option, no, he couldn't just give up, He had worked hard just to get that invitation, once he accepted it he was on a whole new level. He was probably one of the youngest people in that contest being 15. Other streamers and content creators were all in their mid-twenties and that didn't scare Kenny at all.

He went home locked himself in his room cried for some time and then sat up straight and meditated. He hoped to find a way out of this all by himself. No luck.

Finally, he opened the door to his room and emerged outside. His father was in the office but his Mom was there standing in front of the photographs of Indian deities and praying.

"Did it really matter that much to her?" Kenny thought to himself.

His mother heard his footsteps and finished her prayer. She got up and as she did, Kenny braced himself for a hug that might as well push his soul out and he anticipated his mother's actions correctly. Next moment he found himself clutched tightly around his belly by the motherly and gentle (cough yeah right cough) arms of his mother. Then she released him and gently spoke, "You know Ken, some things are just not meant to be-"

"This was mom," Kenny replied immediately "I could sense it."

His mother sighed then spoke in a hushed yet sweet voice, "Well don't give up just yet sweetie, I am sure you can do something about it, maybe you can change the game or do something like that."

"No mum that can't happen I can't…"

Then it struck him, he could. In fact, that was the only thing to do.

He rushed to his computer opened the game remapped his crouch keybind to the mouse button five but before that he had to make sure.

"Are you sure." He asked himself aloud, still doubting his sanity. And almost immediately a voice inside him said: "HELL YEAH"

That day and the following day he practiced hard to get used to it and so he did. He adapted in no time at all. Where a normal person would take at least 3 weeks to get used to it he did it in 3 hours and that is no joke. He finally felt as pumped as ever for the competition. The next day's afternoon was the best, he boarded the flight along with his dad and they obviously had no conversations. The next day at around 7 in the morning they landed at Bob Hope airport. As soon as he landed there, Kenny had only one thing in mind- the tournament which was to be held in a huge baseball stadium right beside his Hotel.

On the day of the tournament, he was pretty nervous, he braced himself and left for the stadium. When he reached there he was amazed, thousands of people were flooding into the stadium. "I can do this." He muttered under his breath. With that, he walked towards the table that read ‘Con-Fee-Dental' and sat. Whatever happened after that was very unclear for Kenny, he felt like he was in heaven. That gamer gear felt really good.

When the results were being announced. Kenny waited with bated breath. He had a win he might pull this off. Then he heard the commentators say:

"Well Jimmy, it may seem like we have a bit of a tie here a total of five people got a win each. If ten people have to win then someone will have to be disqualified"

"Ah yes Charlie so as the judges have decided the shortlisting will have to be done based on the number of kills"

"And here's the final list of winners"

Kenny didn't see his name anywhere on there and with a broken heart and tears filled in his eyes, he left the Stadium.

The next day he got up to the excited squealing of his sister who out of nowhere was in Kenny's room. And in the excited voice, she spoke, "You won Kenny you won! One of them was a Hacker. The judges caught him!" Kenny couldnt beleive it. It was the best moment. It was an epic gamer moment...